DVD-Audio disk, and apparatus and method for recording data on and/or reproducing data from the same

ABSTRACT

A DVD-Audio which includes a data zone for storing data to be reproduced and an information zone for storing information on the data to be reproduced. The information zone includes directories of a video title set (VIDEO_TS) and an audio title set (AUDIO_TS). The AUDIO_TS directory includes information on an audio manager (AMG) having information on audio titles. The data zone includes the audio titles each having an audio title set information (ATSI) followed by a plurality of contiguous audio objects (AOBs). The ATSI includes a plurality of audio stream attributes each having an audio coding mode, first to third quantization bit numbers, first to third sampling frequencies and decoding algorithm information relating to the number of audio channels. Each of the AOBs includes a plurality of audio packs recorded with audio data corresponding to the decoding algorithm stored in the audio stream attribute.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of Korean Application No.10330/1997, filed Mar. 25, 1997 and Korean Application No. 51861/1997,filed Oct. 9, 1997, in the Korean Patent Office, and is a division ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/047,363 filed in the U.S. Patent andTrademark Office on Mar. 25, 1998, now pending, which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/921,082,filed Aug. 29, 1997 now abandoned, the disclosures of which areincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a digital versatile disk (DVD), and anapparatus and method for playing the DVD, and more particularly, to anaudio DVD (hereinafter referred to as “DVD-Audio”) and an apparatus andmethod for playing the same.

2. Description of the Related Art

Recently, there has been developed a so-called video DVD (hereinafterreferred to as “DVD-Video”), which has a considerably higher storagecapacity than a laser disk (LD) so as to realize a significantlyimproved picture and sound quality. If the DVD is employed to store andretrieve only audio data, such DVD is called a DVD-Audio. The DVD-Audioprovides means for storing and retrieving a large amount of audio datahaving a significantly improved quality compared to a compact disk (CD)or a digital audio tape (DAT).

The conventional CD stores an audio signal as linear pulse codemodulated (PCM) audio data quantized into 16 bits by employing asampling frequency of 44.1 KHz. The digital data stored in the CD isconverted into analog signals by means of a CD player. The CD is muchmore convenient to use as compared to the previous microgroovephonograph record (LP), but is regarded as having a lower sound qualitythan the analog LP. This is because the audio signals are sampled at44.1 KHz and quantized into 16 bits to be stored into a CD. Moreover,the audible frequency range may be over 20 KHz, and the dynamic rangemust be over 120 dB. In addition, the CD can only store audio signals ofat most two channels, and therefore is impossible to store and reproducethe audio data concerned with multi-channel music. In thesecircumstances, there have been proposed various methods to improve thesound quality of the CD by increasing the numbers of the samplingfrequency and the audio channels.

The DVD provides means to record video and audio data at high density.In this case, the video data is recorded in the MPEG (Moving PictureExpert Group) while the audio data is recorded in the linear PCM format,dolby AC-3 format, MPEG format, etc. Hence, the DVD-Video player isdesigned to reproduce both video and audio data recorded in a DVD-Video.Such a DVD-Video prepared to necessarily store video data is veryuneconomical in view of the storage space when used for storing audiodata only.

The audio data recorded in a DVD-Video has a much higher quality thanthat in a CD since the audio data of the DVD has a higher samplingfrequency and larger numbers of quantization bits and channels than thatof the CD. Namely, the DVD player reproduces high quality audio data inmultiple channels.

The DVD is possible to transfer data at 10.08 Mbps at most. This makesit possible to reproduce data sampled at 192 KHz in two channels. Thisalso approaches the maximum sampling frequency proposed as aprerequisite for the next advanced audio system at the Advanced DigitalAudio Conference held in Japan in April, 1996. Thus, if audio data arerecorded in a DVD-Audio, the DVD player may reproduce sounds of asignificantly improved quality over that reproduced from the DVD-Video.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a DVD-Audio forstoring digital audio signals sampled at the maximum sampling frequencyand quantized in the maximum number of bits with the number of channelslimited by the data transfer speed in linear PCM.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a DVD-Audio forcompressively coding digital audio signals sampled at the maximumsampling frequency and quantized in the maximum number of bits andstoring them with the number of channels limited by the data transferspeed and the coding system in linear PCM.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a DVDplayer for playing a DVD-Audio recorded in linear PCM and a methodtherefor.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a DVD playerfor playing a DVD-Audio recorded with audio data compressively coded anda method therefor.

It is further another object of the present invention to provide a DVDplayer for properly playing a DVD-Video or DVD-Audio by distinguishingthem.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a DVD-Audioincludes a data zone for storing data to be reproduced and aninformation zone for storing information on the data, the informationzone including directories of a video title set (VIDEO_TS) and an audiotitle set (AUDIO_TS), wherein the AUDIO_TS directory includesinformation on an audio manager (AMG) having information on audiotitles, wherein the data zone includes the audio titles each havingaudio title set information (ATSI) followed by a plurality of contiguousaudio objects (AOBs), the ATSI includes a plurality of audio streamattributes each having an audio coding mode indicator, first to thirdquantization bit numbers, first to third sampling frequencies anddecoding algorithm information relating to the number of audio channels,and each of the AOBs includes a plurality of audio packs recorded withaudio data corresponding to the decoding algorithm stored in the audiostream attribute.

According to a second aspect, an apparatus for playing the inventiveDVD-Audio includes a data receiver for receiving the audio dataretrieved from the DVD-Audio, a controller for generating an audiocontrol signal containing an audio coding mode indicator, a samplingfrequency, a channel number and quantization information by analyzinginformation on the audio data or stopping the playing operationaccording to whether the AUDIO_TS is detected to have effective data, anaudio decoder to decode the received audio data and to multi-channelmix, sampling-frequency convert and requantize the decoded audio signalaccording to the audio control signal, and an audio output circuit toconvert the decoded audio data into an analog audio signal.

According to a third aspect, a method for playing the inventiveDVD-Audio includes the steps of locating the AMG when the AUDIO_TSdirectory includes an effective data, checking out all information ofthe DVD-Audio from the information of the AMG, reading the data of theposition of an audio title selected according to the positioninformation of the AMG when receiving a command for reproducing theaudio title, and setting the audio decoder to carry out the algorithmfor reproducing the audio title by reading the audio stream attribute ofthe audio title set information management table (ATSI_AMT).

The present invention will now be described more specifically withreference to the drawings attached only by way of example.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an example of the directory structure of a DVD;

FIG. 2 is an example of the logical data structure of a DVD;

FIG. 3 is a diagram for illustrating the structure of the video manager(VMG) and VTS;

FIG. 4 is a diagram for illustrating the structure of the VMG of a DVD;

FIG. 5 is a diagram for illustrating the structure of a title searchpointer table (TT_SRPT) of a DVD;

FIG. 6 is a diagram for illustrating the structure of a video title setinformation (VTSI);

FIG. 7 is a diagram for illustrating the structure of a video title setmanagement table (VTSI_MAT);

FIG. 8A is a diagram for illustrating the structure of the video titleset audio stream attribute table (VTS_AST_ATRT);

FIG. 8B is a diagram for illustrating the internal structure ofVTS_AST_ATRT;

FIG. 9A is a diagram for illustrating the structure of a multi-channelaudio stream attribute table of a video title set (VTS_MU_AST_ATRT);

FIG. 9B is a diagram for illustrating the structure of a multi-channelaudio stream attribute (1) of a video title set (VTS_MU_AST_ATR(1));

FIGS. 9C and 9D are diagrams for illustrating the structure of theVTS_MU_AST ATR(2);

FIG. 10 is a diagram for illustrating a logical structure of theDVD-Audio;

FIG. 11 is a diagram for illustrating the structures of an audio manager(AMG) and audio title set (ATS) of the DVD-Audio;

FIG. 12 is a diagram for illustrating the structure of an audio managerinformation (AMGI) of the DVD-Audio;

FIG. 13 is a diagram for illustrating the structure of a title searchpointer table (TT_SRPT) of the DVD-Audio;

FIG. 14 is a diagram for illustrating the structure of an audio titleset information (ATSI) of the DVD-Audio;

FIG. 15 is a diagram for illustrating the structure of an audio titleset information management table (ATSI_MAT) of the DVD-Audio;

FIG. 16 is a diagram for illustrating the internal structure of an audiostream attribute of an audio title set menu (ATSM_AST_ATR) of theDVD-Audio;

FIG. 17A is a diagram for illustrating the structure of an audio streamattribute table of an audio title set (ATS_AST_ATRT) of the DVD-Audio;

FIG. 17B is a diagram for illustrating the structure of an audio streamattribute of an audio title set (ATS_AST_ATR) of the DVD-Audio;

FIG. 18A is a diagram for illustrating the structure of a multi-channelaudio stream attribute of an audio title set (ATS_MU_AST_ATR) of theDVD-Audio;

FIG. 18B is a diagram for illustrating the structure of a firstextension of a multi-channel audio stream attribute of an audio titleset (ATS_MU_AST_ATR_EXT(1)) of the DVD-Audio;

FIG. 18C is a diagram for illustrating the structure of a secondextension of a multi-channel audio stream attribute of the audio titleset (ATS_MU_AST_ATR_EXT(2)) of the DVD-Audio;

FIG. 19 is a diagram for illustrating the structure of an audio objectset (AOBS) of the DVD-Audio;

FIG. 20 is a diagram for illustrating a pack structure of the DVD-Audio;

FIGS. 21A to 21D are diagrams for illustrating various pack structuresof the DVD-Audio;

FIG. 22 is a diagram for illustrating a linear PCM audio packet in theaudio pack as shown in FIG. 21A;

FIG. 23 is a diagram for illustrating the structure of a linear PCMAaudio frame of the DVD-Audio;

FIGS. 24A to 24C are diagrams for illustrating a sample data arrangementof the linear PCM;

FIG. 25 is a diagram for illustrating the structure of a linear audiopacket of the DVD-Audio;

FIG. 26 is a diagram for illustrating the structure of a DTS audiopacket of the DVD-Audio;

FIG. 27 is a block diagram for illustrating the functional structure ofa DVD-Audio player according to a first embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 28 is a block diagram for illustrating the structure of an audiodecoder as shown in FIG. 27;

FIG. 29 is a block diagram for illustrating the functional structure ofa DVD-Audio/DVD-Video player according to a second embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 30 is a block diagram for illustrating the structure of anaudio/video decoder as shown in FIG. 29;

FIG. 31 is a flow chart for illustrating the process of reproducingaudio data from a DVD-Audio in the DVD-Audio player; and

FIG. 32 is a flow chart for illustrating the operation of an audiodecoder in the DVD-Audio player.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In the attached drawings, the same reference numerals are used torepresent parts serving the same functions and detailed descriptions areomitted concerning the parts not essential to describe the inventiveconcept, for convenience's sake.

The data structure of the DVD-Audio is similar to that of the DVD-Video.Hence, the DVD-Audio includes a data zone to record the audio data andan information zone to record the information on the audio data. The DVDplayer may be embodied in the form of a DVD-Audio player or aDVD-Audio/Video player. Of course, the DVD player has a mechanism todetermine whether an inserted DVD is a DVD-Audio or DVD-Video. Theinventive DVD-Audio has almost the same structure as the DVD-Video withsome partly changed data structure to achieve the audio data of highquality.

The fundamental file structure recorded in the information zone of theDVD-Audio is as shown in FIG. 1 for illustrating a directory structurefor the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio. The directory structure generallyincludes a video title set directory (VIDEO_TS), audio title setdirectory (AUDIO_TS) and a user defined directory. Each of thedirectories contains a plurality of files of which the names shall beassigned. The directory structure is to represent the locations of thefiles in the disk. The files connected to the VIDEO_TS are prepared forthe DVD-Video and DVD-Video player while those connected to the AUDIO_TSare prepared for the DVD-Audio and DVD-Audio player.

Generally, each of the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio contains both VIDEO_TSand AUDIO_TS. However, the DVD-Video has the AUDIO_TS emptied (all ofthe information on the data stored in the DVD-Video disk being containedin the VIDEO_TS) while the DVD-Audio has the AUDIO_TS containing theinformation on the positions of the audio titles recorded on the diskand the VIDEO_TS also containing the information on the positions of thetitles of reproducible information (spec: e.g., sampling frequency) inthe DVD-Video player. Hence, if a DVD has no effective data in theAUDIO_TS, it is determined as being DVD-Video, or otherwise, i.e., ifthe DVD player detects effective data in the AUDIO_TS, it determines thedisk as being DVD-Audio. Namely, the DVD player detects the AUDIO_TS ofa DVD to distinguish DVD-Video and DVD-Audio.

The logical data structure of DVD-Video is illustrated in FIG. 1. Theconcept of the logical data structure of DVD-Video includes structure ofa volume space, structure of a video manager (VMG), structure of a videotitle set (VTS), and structure of a video object set (VOBS).

Describing the logical data structure of the volume space with referenceto FIG. 2, it includes the volume and file structure, single DVD-Videozone and DVD others zone. The DVD-Video zone, which shall be assignedfor the data structure of the DVD-Video, includes a single VMG and VTSsnumbering from at least 1 to a maximum of 99. The VMG is allocated atthe leading part of the DVD-Video zone. Each VTS includes between 3 and12 files.

Referring to FIG. 3 for illustrating the VMG and VTS structure, all VOBsare recorded in contiguous blocks. Each VOB includes video, audio andsub-picture data. The VMG includes a video manager information file(VMGI) as control data, video manager menu file of the VOBs (VMGM_VOBS)and VGMI backup file. Each VTS includes VTSI as control data, a videotitle set menu of VOBS (VTSM_VOBS), a video title set title of VOBS(VTSTT_VOBS) and a VTSI backup file. The VTSTT_VOBS includes a pluralityof cells (C_IDN). In the drawing, C_IDN# indicates cell ID number withina VOBS, and VOB_IDN# VOB ID number within a VOBS.

Referring to FIG. 4, the VMGI describes information on the relatedVIDEO_TS directory. The VMGI starts with a video manager informationmanagement table (VMGI_MAT), followed by a title search pointer table(TT_SRPT), followed by a video manager menu PGCI unit table(VMGM_PGCI_UT), followed by a parental management information table(PTL_MAIT), followed by a video title set attribute table (VTS_ATRT),followed by a text data manager (TXTDT_MG), followed by a video managermenu cell address table (VMGM_C_ADT), followed by a video manager menuvideo object unit address map (VMGM_VOBU_ADMAP).

Referring to FIG. 5 for describing search information of a video titleunder the VIDEO_TS directory, the TT_SRPT starts with TT_SRPTinformation (TT_SRPTI) followed by title search pointers (TT_SRPs) forevery title under the VIDEO_TS directory. The title number # ranges from1 to 99.

Referring to FIG. 6, the VTSI provides information for one or more videotitles and the video title set menu (VTSM). The VTSI describes themanagement information of these titles such as the information to searchthe part_of title (PTT) and the information to play back the videoobject set (VOBS), and the video title set menu (VTSM), as well as theinformation on the attribute of the VOBS.

The VTSI starts with a video title set information management table(VTSI_MAT), followed by a video title set part_of_title search pointertable (VTS_PTT_SPRT), followed by a video title set program chaininformation table (VTS_PGCIT), followed by a video title set menu PGCIunit table (VTSM_PGCI_UT), followed by a video title set time map table(VTS_TMAPT), followed by a video title set menu cell address table(VTSM_C_ADT), followed by a video title set menu video object unitaddress map (VTSM_VOBU_ADMAP), followed by a video title set celladdress table (VTS_C_ADT), followed by a video title set video objectunit address map (VTS_VOBU_ADMAP) as shown in FIG. 6.

Referring to FIG. 7, the VTSI_MAT describes the start address of eachpiece of information in the VTSI and the attribute of the VOBS in theVTS. In this VTSI_MAT, the audio stream attribute table of the VTS(VTS_AST_ATRT) of RBP 516 to 579 stores 8 VTS_AST_ATRs #0 to #7 as shownin FIG. 8A. Each VTS_AST_ATR includes 8 bytes arranged as shown in FIG.8B. Each field value represents the internal information of the audiostream of the VTSM_VOBS. Describing the contents of one VTS_AST_ATR withreference to FIG. 8B, the audio coding mode of b63 to b61 is as shown inthe following Table 1:

TABLE 1 b63-b61 Audio Coding Mode 000b Dolby AC-3 010b MPEG-1 or MPEG-2without extension bit stream 011b MPEG-2 with extension bitstream 100bLinear PCM audio 110b DTS (option) 111b SDDS (option) Others reserved

The multichannel extension of b60 is to store information on whether themultichannel extension is made or not. Namely, 0b represents themultichannel extension not selected while 1b represents the multichannelextension selected according to the information of the VTS_MU_AST_ATRTrecorded in RBP 792 to 983 of the VTSI_MAT shown in FIG. 7.

The audio type of b59 to b58 is as shown in Table 2.

TABLE 2 b59-b58 audio type 00b Not specified 01b Language includedOthers reserved

The audio application mode of b57 to b56 is as shown in the followingTable 3.

TABLE 3 b57-b56 audio application mode 00b not specified 01b Karaokemode 10b Surround mode 11b reserved

For the quantization /DRC of b55 to b54, when the audio coding mode is‘000b’, ‘11b’ is recorded. When the audio coding mode is ‘010b’ or‘011b’, the quantization/DRC is defined as:

00b: Dynamic range control data do not exist in MPEG audio stream

01b: Dynamic range control data exist in MPEG audio stream

10b: reserved

11b: reserved

When the audio coding mode ‘100b’, then the quantization/DRC is definedas in the following Table 4.

TABLE 4 b55-b54 Quantization DRC 00b 16 bits 01b 20 bits 10b 24 bits 11breserved

The sampling frequency fs of b53 to b52 is as shown in Table 5.

TABLE 5 B53-b52 fs 00b 48 KHz 01b 96 KHz 10b reserved 11b reserved

The number of audio channels stored in b50 to b48 is as shown in Table6.

TABLE 6 b50-b48 No. of Audio Channels 000b 1ch (mono) 001b 2ch (stereo)010b 3ch (multichannel) 011b 4ch (multichannel) 100b 5ch (multichannel)101b 6ch (multichannel) 110b 7ch (multichannel) 111b 8ch (multichannel)Others reserved

In addition, the multichannel audio stream attribute table of the VTS ofRBP 792 to 983 in the VTSI_MAT of FIG. 7 provides the VTS_MU_AST_ATRs #0to #7 of 8 audio streams as shown in FIG. 9A. Each VTS_MU_AST_ATRincludes a VTS_MU_AST_ATR(1) of 8 bytes as shown in FIG. 9B and aVTS_MU_AST_ATR(2) of 16 bytes as shown in FIGS. 9C and 9D.

Thus, the information zone VIDEO_TS of the DVD-Video is constructed asshown in FIGS. 2 to 9D. Such a DVD-Video stores both video and audiodata, and therefore can not provide audio data of good quality. Hence,it is impossible to record the audio data on a DVD-Video at the maximumrate 10.08 Mbps of the DVD. Namely, the maximum bit rate to record theaudio data on the DVD-Video is 6.75 Mbps, and the maximum samplingfrequency 96 KHz. The linear PCM multichannel audio data recorded on theDVD-Video is as shown in Table 7.

TABLE 7 Fs Qb Maximum Number of Channels Maximum Bit Rate 48 KHz 16 bit8ch 6.144 Mbps 48 KHz 20 bit 6ch 5.760 Mbps 48 KHz 24 bit 5ch 5.760 Mbps96 KHz 16 bit 4ch 6.144 Mbps 96 KHz 20 bit 3ch 5.760 Mbps 96 KHz 24 bit2ch 4.608 Mbps

The present invention is to provide a DVD-Audio for recording only audiodata not -including video data. Hence, the DVD-Audio can storemultichannel audio data in the range of the maximum bit rate 10.08 Mbpsof the DVD, which is different from the DVD-Video. Thus, the DVD-Audiomay use the sampling frequency of at most 192 KHz, and extend the numberof the audio channels to 13.

The file structure stored in the information zone of the DVD-Audio isessentially the same as shown in FIG. 1. The files included in theAUDIO_TS directory are to provide for the DVD-Audio and its player.Hence, the DVD-Audio has both AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS, where the VIDEO_TSstores the positional information of the VMG and titles which arereproducible in a DVD-Video player. The AUDIO_TS stores the positionalinformation of the AMG and titles which are reproducible in a DVD-Audioplayer. The DVD player determines whether an inserted DVD is DVD-Audioor not by checking the contents of the audio title set directoryAUDIO_TS.

Referring to FIG. 10, the logical data structure of the DVD-Audioincludes structure of a volume space, structure of an audio manager(AMG), structure of an audio title set (ATS), and structure of an audioobject set (AOBS). The volume space includes the volume and filestructure, a single DVD-Audio zone and DVD others zone. The DVD-Audiozone, which is assigned for the data structure of the DVD-Audio,includes a single AMG and VTSS numbering from at least 1 to a maximum of99. The AMG is allocated at the leading part of the DVD-Audio-zone,including 2 or 3 files. Each VTS includes between 3 and 12 files.

The AMG and ATS are structured similar to the VMG and VTS of theDVD-Video, as shown in FIGS. 11-17C. However, the data structure for thelinear PCM and pseudo-lossless psychoacoustic coded data (PLPCD) of theDVD-Audio is not proper for processing the linear PCM, lossless codeddata or PLPCD according to the new sampling frequency of the DVD-Audio.Therefore, the data structures of the AMG and ATS are made somewhatdifferent from that of the VMG and VTS. Namely, the part allocated forthe sampling frequency and channel number in the part allocated for theaudio attribute of the VMG and VTS is extended for the AMG and ATS.

Referring to FIG. 11 for illustrating the AMG and ATS structures, allAOBs are recorded in contiguous blocks. The AMG includes an audiomanager information file (AMGI) as control data, an audio manager menufile of the AOBs (AMGM_AOBS) and an AGMI backup file. Each ATS includesATSI as control data, an audio title set menu of AOBS (ATSM_AOBS), anaudio title set title of AOBS (ATSTT_AOBS) and an ATSI backup file. TheATSTT_AOBS includes a plurality of cells (C_IDN). In the drawing, C_IDN#indicates cell ID number within an AOBS, and AOB_IDN# AOB ID numberwithin an AOBS.

Referring to FIG. 12, the AMGI describes information on the relatedAUDIO_TS directory. The AMGI starts with an audio manager informationmanagement table (AMGI_MAT), followed by a title search pointer table(TT_SRPT), followed by an audio manager menu PGCI unit table(AMGM_PGCI_UT), followed by a parental management information table(PTL_MAIT), followed by an audio title set attribute table (ATS_ATRT),followed by a text data manager (TXTDT_MG), followed by an audio managermenu cell address table (AMGM_C_ADT), followed by an audio manager menuaudio object unit address map (AMGM_AOBU_ADMAP).

Referring to FIG. 13 for describing search information of an audio titleunder the VIDEO_TS directory, the TT_SRPT starts with TT_SRPTinformation (TT_SRPTI) followed by title search pointers (TT_SRPs) forevery title under the AUDIO_TS directory. The title number # ranges from1 to 99.

Referring to FIG. 14, the ATSI provides information for one or moreaudio titles and audio title set menu (ATSM). The ATSI describes themanagement information of these titles such as the information to searchthe part_of title (PTT) and the information to play back the audioobject set (AOBS), and the audio title set menu (ATSM), as well as theinformation on the attribute of the AOBS.

The ATSI starts with audio title set information management table(ATSI_MAT), followed by an audio title set part_of_title search pointertable (ATS_PTT_SPRT), followed by an audio title set program chaininformation table (ATS_PGCIT), followed by an audio title set menu PGCIunit table (ATSM_PGCI_UT), followed by an audio title set time map table(ATS_TMAPT), followed by an audio title set menu cell address table(ATSM_C_ADT), followed by an audio title set menu audio object unitaddress map (ATSM_AOBU_ADMAP), followed by an audio title set celladdress table (ATS_C_ADT), followed by an audio title set audio objectunit address map (ATS_AOBU_ADMAP) as shown in FIG. 14.

Referring to FIG. 15, the ATSI_MAT describes the start address of eachinformation in the ATSI and the attribute of the AOBS in the ATS. TheATSI_MAT is provided with ATSM_AST_ATR of RBP 260 to 267, ATS_AST_ATRTof RBP 516 to 579 and ATS_MU_AST_ATR_EXT of RBP 792 to 1298.

The audio coding mode of the ATSM_AST_ATR and ATS_AST_ATRT stores thecoding information of the audio data recorded in the DVD-Audio. Thepresent embodiment describes the recording on the DVD-Audio of the audiodata of lossless psychoacoustic coding and pseudo-losslesspsychoacoustic coding (hereinafter referred to as “psychoacousticcoding”). In addition, it is assumed that the psychoacoustic coding modeis performed with a DTS coding system, which may support the losslesspsychoacoustic coding and pseudo-lossless psychoacoustic coding. In thiscase, the DTS coding mode is optional, and if b63 to b61 is ‘110b’, theDTS audio coding mode is selected.

For the change of ATSM_AST_ATR, the data pattern and definition of b55to b48 are changed. Namely, the sampling frequency data of b53 to b52 ischanged, and the reserved bit of b51 is included in the audio channels,as shown in FIG. 16. Thus, the audio sampling frequency fs is changed asshown in Table 8.

TABLE 8 b53-b52 b51 fs 00b 0   48 KHz 01b 0   96 KHz 10b 0  192 KHz 11b0 reserved 00b 1 44.1 KHz 01b 1 88.2 KHz 10b 1 176.4 KHz  11b 1 reserved

In addition, the number of the audio channels is changed as shown inTables 9a and 9b.

TABLE 9a b51-b48 Number of Audio Channels 0000b  1ch (mono) 0001b  2ch(stereo) 0010b  3ch (multichannel) 0011b  4ch (multichannel) 0100b  5ch(multichannel) 0101b  6ch (multichannel) 0110b  7ch (multichannel) 0111b 8ch (multichannel) 1000b  9ch (multichannel) 1001b 10ch (multichannel)1010b 11ch (multichannel) 1011b 12ch (multichannel) 1100b 13ch(multichannel) 1101b 14ch (multichannel) 1110b 15ch (multichannel) 1111b16ch (multichannel)

TABLE 9b b51-b48 Number of Audio Channels 1100b 13ch (multichannel)1101b 14ch (multichannel) 1110b 15ch (multichannel) 1111b 16ch(multichannel)

The ATS_AST_ATRT of RBP 516 to 579 in the ATSI_MAT as shown in FIG. 15stores ATS_AST_ATRs of 8 audio streams #0 to #7 as shown in FIG. 17A,each of which includes 8 bytes structured as shown in FIG. 17B, and eachfield value serves as the internal information of the audio stream ofthe ATSM_AOBS.

The data pattern and definition of b55 to b48 are changed as shown inFIG. 17B. Namely, in b55 to b48 of the VTS_AST_ATRT as shown in FIG. 8B,the reserved bit of b51 is included in the audio channels. Consequently,the audio sampling frequency fs is changed as shown in Table 8 while thenumber of the audio channels is changed as shown in Tables 9a and 9b.

In the ATS_MU_AST_ATRT, the information as shown in FIGS. 18B and 18Care added to the information of FIGS. 9B and 9C. The ATS_MU_AST_ATR(1)and ATS_MU_AST_ATR(2) provide the information on the audio data andchannel mixing coefficients up to 8 channels, and therefore can notprovide the information on the linear PCM audio over 8 channels. Thepresent invention may provide up to 13 channels, so that the informationfrom the 9th channel to the 13th channel are recorded in the reservedregions after the ATS_MU_AST_ATR(1) and ATS_MU_AST_ATR(2). Referring toFIG. 18A, the ATS_MU_AST_ATRT provides 13 ATS_MU_(AST)_ATRs #0 to #12each having 39 bytes to store the information on 13 audio channels andthe mixing coefficients.

Each ATS_MU_AST_ATR includes the audio channel information as shown inFIG. 18B and the mixing coefficient information as shown in FIG. 18C.FIG. 18B illustrates only the information of the extended five audiochannels ATS_MU_AST_ATR_EXT(1), while omitting the ATS_MU_AST_ATR(1) forstoring the data information of the 8 audio channels. Likewise, FIG. 18Cillustrates only the information of the extended five audio channelsATS_MU_AST_ATR_EXT(2), while omitting the ATS_MU_AST_ATR(2) for storingthe data information of the 8 audio channels. The ATSI_MAT representsthe information on the audio data recorded on the DVD-Audio, forming thefirst part of each audio title and followed by the AOBS of substantialaudio data. Of course, the VTSI_MAT as shown in FIG. 7 represent alsothe information on the video data, sub-picture data and audio datarecorded on the DVD-Video, forming the first part of each video titleand followed by the VOBS of substantial data. The AOBS is structured asshown in FIG. 19, providing a plurality of audio packs to store theaudio data. Likewise, the VOBS is structured similar to FIG. 19,providing a plurality of video packs, sub-picture packs and audio packsto respectively store the video data, sub-picture data and audio data.

The structure of the AOBS is similar to that of the VOBS, and thereforedescription of the structure of the VOBS will help understand thestructure of the AOBS. The VOBS includes a plurality of video objectsVOB_IDN1 to VOB_IDNi, each of which in turn includes a plurality ofcells C_IDN1 to C_IDNj, each of which in turn includes a plurality ofvideo object units VOBUs, each of which in turn includes a plurality ofvideo packs.

The video data recorded in a DVD-Video includes a plurality of packs,whose structure is illustrated in FIG. 20 without a padding packet.Referring to FIG. 20, one pack has a size of 2048 bytes including a packheader of 14 bytes and a plurality of packets for video, audio,sub-picture, DSI or PCI of 2034 bytes. Further, the packet headerincludes a pack start code of 4 bytes, SCR of 6 bytes, program_mux_rateof 3 bytes and stuffing_length of 1 byte.

Referring to FIG. 21A, the linear PCM audio pack includes a pack headerof 14 bytes and a linear audio packet of 2034 bytes. The audio packetincludes a packet header of 1 byte, sub_stream_id of 1 byte, audio frameinformation of 3 bytes and linear PCM audio data of 1 to 2013 bytes.

Referring to FIG. 21B, the dolby AC-3 audio pack includes a pack headerof 14 bytes and a dolby AC-3 audio packet of 2034 bytes. The audiopacket further includes a packet header of 1 byte, sub_stream_id of 1byte, audio frame information of 3 bytes and AC-3 audio data of 1 to2016 bytes.

FIG. 21C illustrates the structure of an MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 audio packwithout an extension bit stream, and FIG. 21D the structure of MPEG-2with an extension stream. The structures of the audio packs as shown inFIGS. 21A to 21D are shown in Table 10, additionally provided withprivate data areas corresponding to their formats.

TABLE 10 Field Bit Byte Value Comment packet_start_code_prefix 24 3 000001h stream_id 8 1 1011 1101b private_(—) stream_1 PES_packet_length 162 ‘10’ 2 3 PES_scrambling_control 2 3 00b not scrambled PES_priority 1 30 no priority data_alignment_indicator 1 3 0 not defined by descriptorcopyright 1 3 0 not defined by descriptor original_or_copy 1 3 1 or 0original: 1 copy: 0 PTS_DTS_flags 2 3 10 or 00b ESCR_flag 1 3 0 no ESCRfield ES_rate_flag 1 3 0 no EST rate field DSTM_trick_mode_flag 1 3 0 notrick mode field additional_copy_info_flag 1 3 0 no copy info fieldPES_CRC-flag 1 3 0 no CRC field PES_extension_flag 1 3 0 or 1PES_header_data_length 8 3 0 to 15 ‘0010’ 4 5 provider Note 1 definedPTS[32 . . . 30] 3 5 provider Note 1 defined marker_bit 1 5 providerNote 1 defined PTS[29 . . . 15] 15 5 provider Note 1 defined marker_bit1 5 provider Note 1 defined PTS[14 . . . 0] 15 5 provider Note 1 definedmarker_bit 1 5 provider Note 1 defined PES_private_data_flag 1 1 0 Note2 pack_header_field_flag 1 1 0 Note 2 program_packet_sequence 1 1 0 Note2 counter_flag P_STD_buffer_flag 1 1 1 Note 2 reserved 3 1 111b Note 2PES_extension_flag_2 1 1 0 Note 2 ‘01’ 2 2 01b Note 2 P_STD_buffer_scale1 2 1 Note 2 P_STD-buffer_size 13 2 58 Note 2 stuffing_byte — 0-7 InTable 10, Notes 1 and 2 are described as follows: Note 1: “PTS[32 . . .0]” shall be described in every audio packet in which the first sampleof an audio frame is included. Note 2: These fields occur in the firstaudio packet of each VOB, and are prohibited in the subsequent audiopackets.

In the audio packet of the linear PCM data structured as shown in FIG.21A, the data recorded in the private data area besides the common dataarea is as shown in Table 11.

TABLE 11 Audio Data Area (Linear PCM) Field Bit Byte Value Commentsub_stream_id 8 1 10100***b Note 1 number_of_frame_headers 8 Note 2first_access_unit_pointer 16 Note 3 audio_emphasis_flag 1 Note 4audio_mute_flag 1 Note 5 Reserved 1 3 0 audio_frame_number 5 Note 6quantization_word_length 2 Note 7 audio sampling frequency 2 Note 8Reserved 1 0 number_of_audio_channels 3 3 Provider Defined Note 9dynamic_range_control 8 Note 10 In Table 11, Notes 1 to 10 are describedas follows: Note 1: ***represents decoding an audio data stream number.Note 2: “number_of_frame_headers” describes the number of audio frameswhose first byte is in this audio packet. Note 3: The access unit is theaudio frame. The first access unit is the first audio frame which hasthe first byte of the audio frame. Note 4: “audio_emphasis_flag”describes the state of emphasis. When “audio_sampling_frequency” is 96KHz, “emphasis off” is described in this field. The emphasis is appliedto all audio samples decoded from the first access unit. 0b: emphasisoff 1b: emphasis on Note 5: “audio_mute_flag” describes the state ofmute while all data in the audio frame is ZERO. The mute is applied toall audio samples decoded from the first access unit. Note 6:“audio_frame_number” describes the frame number of the first access unitin the Group of audio frame (GOF) with the numbers between ‘0’ and ‘19’.Note 7: “quantization_word_length” describes the word-length which theaudio samples are quantized to. 00b: 16 bits 01b: 20 bits 10b: 24 bits11b: reserved Note 8: “audio_sampling_frequency” describes the samplingfrequency of the audio sample. 00b: 48 KHz 01b: 96 KHz Others: reservedNote 9: “number_of_channels” describes the number of audio channels.000b: 1ch (mono) 001b: 2ch (stereo) 010b: 3ch 011b: 4ch 100b: 5ch 101b:6ch 110b: 7ch 111b: 8ch Note 10: “dynamic_range_control” describes thedynamic word control word to compress the dynamic range from the firstaccess unit.

In the audio packets as shown in FIGS. 21A to 21D, the stream_id of thelinear PCM audio packet is 1011 1101b (private_stream_1), and thesub_stream_id 1010 0***b. The stream_id of the AC-3 audio packet is 10111101b (private_stream_1), and the sub_stream_id 1000 0***b. Thestream_id of the MPEG audio packet is 1100 0***b or 1101 0***b, and nosub_stream_id. “***” in the stream_id or sub_stream_id indicates thedecoding audio stream number which has a value between “0” and “7”, andthe decoding audio stream numbers are not assigned the same numberregardless of the audio compression mode.

FIG. 22 illustrates the structure of the audio stream and packs. Theaudio data used in the DVD-Audio may include linear PCM data, dolby AC-3data and MPEG audio data. The audio stream further includes a pluralityof audio packs. In addition, each audio pack constitutes a unit of 2048bytes as shown in FIG. 22. In this case, the form of encoding the linearPCM audio is based on Table 12.

TABLE 12 Sampling frequency (fs) 48KHz 96KHz Sampling phase Shall besimultaneous for all channels in a stream Quantization 16 bits or more,2's complementary code mphasis Can be applied Can not be applied (zeropoint: 50 μs, pole: 15 μs)

In Table 12, the audio stream data for linear PCM includes contiguousGOFs (Group of Audio Frames), each of which includes 20 audio framesexcept for the last GOF. The last GOF includes no more than 20 audioframes.

FIG. 23 illustrates the structure of the audio frame. One audio frameincludes sample data which correspond to the presentation time of{fraction (1/600)} second. One audio frame contains 80 or 160 audiosample data according to a frequency (fs) of 48 KHz or 96 KHz. One GOFcorresponds to the presentation time of {fraction (1/30)} second. FIGS.24A to 24C illustrate a sample data alignment for linear PCM. Sampledata is formed by the data from each channel sampled out at the sametime. Therefore, the size of sample data varies with the audio streamattribute. The sampled data is continuously arranged. Two sample datafor each mode are shown in FIGS. 24A to 24C. FIG. 24A illustrates a 16bits mode, FIG. 24B illustrates a 20 bits mode and FIG. 24C illustratesa 24 bits mode. The-packet data structure of the linear PCM audio is asshown in Table 13.

TABLE 13 Data in a Packet Packet Padding stuffing of packet for Maximumfirst/other first/other Stream mode number of PES other PES Number ofsamples in Data size packet packet channels fs (KHz) Quantization apacket (byte) (byte) (byte) 1 mono 48/96 16 1004 2008 2/5 0/0 48/96 20804 2010 0/3 0/0 48/96 24 670 2010 0/3 0/0 2 stereo 48/96 16 502 20082/5 0/0 48/96 20 402 2010 0/3 0/0 48/96 24 334 2004 6/0 0/9 3 48/96 16334 2004 6/0 0/9 48/96 20 268 2010 0/3 0/0 48 24 222 1988 0/0 12/15 448/96 16 250 2000 0/0 10/13 48 20 200 2000 0/0 10/13 48 24 166 1992 0/018/21 5 48 16 200 2000 0/0 10/13 48 20 160 2000 0/0 10/13 48 24 134 20100/3 0/0 6 48 16 166 1992 0/0 18/21 48 20 134 2010 0/3 0/0 7 48 16 1421988 0/0 22/25 8 48 16 124 1984 0/0 26/29

If the number of samples is less than in Table 13, the length of apadding packet may the pack size. Samples shall be aligned at packetboundary. Namely, the audio sample data of every audio packet for linearPCM audio always start with the first byte of S_(2n) described in Table13. The channel assignment for linear PCM is as follows:

In the stereo presentation mode, the descriptions of channels, ACH0 andACH1 correspond to left channel (L-ch) and right channel (R-ch)respectively. Multichannel coding is required to keep compatibility withthe stereo mode.

The structure of the DVD-Audio is as shown in FIG. 19. Since theDVD-Audio is to store audio data, it contains no video pack (V_PCK) orsub-picture pack (SP_PCK), or otherwise only small amounts of them. TheAOBS includes a plurality of packs of data as the VOBS does. The generalstructure of the audio pack is as shown in FIGS. 20 and 21A to 21D. Itis assumed that the inventive DVD-Audio does not employ MPEG and AC-3and instead records audio data of linear PCM and compression codingsystem.

Tables 10 and 11 illustrate the linear PCM audio packet of theDVD-Video, which may be altered to obtain the linear PCM audio packet ofthe DVD-Audio. Describing the linear PCM system of the DVD-Audio, thesampling frequencies are 48, 44.1, 96, 188.2, 192 or 176.4 KHz, thenumber of quantization bits is 16, 20 or 24 bits, and the number ofaudio channels is from 1 ch to the maximum allowed by the bit rate. Thenumber of the audio channels may be determined by Eq. 1. $\begin{matrix}{N = \frac{{Mb}\quad \gamma}{{Fs}*{Qb}}} & {{Eq}.\quad 1}\end{matrix}$

Fs: Sampling Frequency(Hz)->48 KHz, 44.1 KHz, 96 KHz, 88.2 KHz, 192 KHz,or 176.4 KHz

Qb: Number of Quantization Bits->16 bits, 20 bits, or 24 bits

Mby: Maximum Data Transfer Rate of DVD(Mbps)->10.08 Mbps

N: Maximum Number of Possible Channels Determined by Data TransmissionRate, Sampling Frequency and Number of Quantization Bits of DVD.

The number of channels determined by Eq. 1 is shown in Table 14.

TABLE 14 Number of Maximum Number of Sampling Frequency QuantizationBits Channels 48 KHz/44.1 KHz   16 bits 8 48 KHz/44.1 KHz 20 8 48KHz/44.1 KHz 24 8 96 KHz/88.2 KHz 16 6 96 KHz/88.2 KHz 20 5 96 KHz/88.2KHz 24 4 192 KHz/176.4 KHz 16 3 192 KHz/176.4 KHz 20 2 192 KHz/176.4 KHz24 2

The structure of the linear PCM audio pack of the DVD-Audio isconstructed as shown in FIG. 25, which is the same as that of theDVD-Video as shown in FIG. 21A. Namely, one audio pack comprises a packheader of 14 bytes and one or more linear PCM packets of at maximum 2021bytes. The pack header is based on an MPEG2 system layer.

The structure of the linear PCM audio packet is also based on the MPEG2system layer. The linear PCM audio packet is constructed as shown inTables 15 and 16. Table 15 has the same structure as Table 10 whileTable 16 for representing private data structure has a structuredifferent from that of Table 11.

TABLE 15 Field Bit Byte Value Comment packet_start_code_prefix 24 3 000001h stream_id 8 1 1011 1101b private_(—) stream_1 PES_packet_length 162 ‘10’ 2 3 PES_scrambling_control 2 3 00b not scrambled PES_priority 1 30 no priority data_alignment_indicator 1 3 0 not defined by descriptorcopyright 1 3 0 not defined by descriptor original_or_copy 1 3 1 or 0original: 1 copy: 0 PTS_DTS_flags 2 3 10 or 00b ESCR_flag 1 3 0 no ESCRfield ES_rate_flag 1 3 0 no EST rate field DSTM_trick_mod_flag 1 3 0 notrick mode field additional_copy_info_flag 1 3 0 no copy info field noCRC PES_CRC_flag 1 3 0 field PES_extension_flag 1 3 0 or 1PES_header_data_length 8 3 0 to 15 ‘0010’ 4 5 provider Note 1 definedPTS[32 . . . 30] 3 5 provider Note 1 defined marker_bit 1 5 providerNote 1 defined PTS[29 . . . 15] 15 5 provider Note 1 defined marker_bit1 5 provider Note 1 defined PTS[14 . . . 0] 15 5 provider Note 1 definedmarker_bit 1 5 provider Note 1 defined PES_private_data_flag 1 1 0 Note2 pack_header_field_flag 1 1 0 Note 2 program_packet_sequence_(—) 1 1 0Note 2 counter_flag P_STD_buffer_flag 1 1 1 Note 2 reserved 3 1 111bNote 2 PES_extension_flag_2 1 1 0 Note 2 ‘01’ 2 2 01b Note 2P_STD_buffer_scale 1 2 1 Note 2 P_STD_buffer_size 13 2 58 Note 2Stufflng_byte — 0-7

TABLE 16 Field Bit Byte Value Comment sub_stream-id 8 1 10100***b Note 1number_of_frame_headers 8 3 Provider defined Note 2first_access_unit_pointer 16 Provider defined Note 3 audio_emphasis_flag1 Provider defined Note 4 audio_mute_flag 1 Provider defined Note 5reserved 1 0 audio_frame_number 5 Provider defined Note 6quantization_word_length 2 Provider defined Note 7audio_sampling_frequency 3 Provider defined Note 8number_of_audio_channels 3 Provider defined Note 9 dynamic_range_control8 Provider defined Note 10 Audio data Area (Linear PCM) In Table 16,Notes 1 to 10 are described as follows: Note 1: *** represents decodingthe audio data stream number. Note 2: “number_of_frame_headers”describes the number of audio frames whose first byte is in this audiopacket. Note 3: The access unit is the audio frame. The first accessunit is the first audio frame which has the first byte of the audioframe. Note 4: “audio_emphasis_flag” describes the state of emphasis.When “audio_sampling_frequency” is 96 KHz, “emphasis off” is describedin this field. The emphasis is applied to all audio samples decoded fromthe first access unit. 0b: emphasis off 1b: emphasis on Note 5:“audio_mute_flag” describes the state of mute while all data in theaudio frame is ZERO. The mute is applied to all audio samples decodedfrom the first access unit. 0b: mute off 1b: mute on Note 6:“audio_frame_number” describes the frame number of the first access unitin the Group of audio frame (GOF) with the numbers between ‘0’ and ‘19’.Note 7: “quantization_word_length” describes the word-length which theaudio samples are quantized to. 00b: 16 bits 01b: 20 bits 10b: 24 bits11b: reserved Note 8: “audio_sampling_frequency” describes the samplingfrequency of the audio sample. 00b: 48 KHz 01b: 96 KHz 10b: 192 KHz 11b:reserved 100b: 44.1 KHz 101b: 88.2 KHz 110b: 176.4 KHz 111b: reservedNote 9: “number_of_channels” describes the number of audio channels.0000b: 1ch (mono) 0001b: 2ch (stereo) 0010b: 3ch — 0011b: 4ch  | 0100b:5ch  | 0101b: 6ch  | (multichannel) 0110b: 7ch  | 0111b: 8ch — Note 10:“dynamic_range_control” describes the dynamic word control word tocompress the dynamic range from the first access unit.

The packet data structure of the linear PCM audio and correspondingframe size of 48 KHz/192 KHz are as shown in Table 17.

TABLE 17 Data in a Packet Stream Mode Maximum Number number of DataPacket Stuffing of Padding packet for of samples in size first/other PESfirst/other other Channels Fs (KHz) Quantization a packet (byte) packet(byte) PES packet (byte) 1 mono 48/96/192 16 1004  2008 2/5 0/048/96/192 20 804 2010 0/3 0/0 48/96/192 24 670 2010 0/3 0/0 2 stereo48/96/192 16 502 2008 2/5 0/0 48/96/192 20 402 2010 0/5 0/0 48/96/192 24334 2004 6/0 0/9 3 48/96/192 16 334 2004 6/0 0/9 48/96 20 268 2010 0/30/0 48/96 24 222 1988 0/0 12/15 4 48/96 16 250 2000 0/0 10/13 48/96 20200 2000 0/0 10/13 48/96 24 166 1992 0/0 18/21 5 48/96 16 200 2000 0/010/13 48/96 20 160 2000 0/0 10/13 48 24 134 2010 0/3 0/0 6 48/96 16 1661992 0/0 18/21 48 20 134 2010 0/3 0/0 48 24 110 1980 0/0 30/33 7 48 16142 1988 0/0 22/25 48 20 114 1995 0/0 15/18 48 24  94 1974 0/0 36/39 848 16 124 1984 0/0 26/29 48 20 100 2000 0/0 10/13 48 24  82 1968 0/042/45 9 48 16 110 1980 0/0 30/33 48 20  88 1980 0/0 30/33 10 48 16 1002000 0/0 10/13 48 20  80 2000 0/0 10/13 11 48 16  90 1980 0/0 30/33 1248 16  82 1968 0/0 42/45 13 48 16  76 1976 0/0 34/37

If the number of samples is less than in Table 17, the length of paddingpacket may increase to adjust the pack size. Samples shall be aligned atthe packet boundary. Namely, the audio sample data of every audio packetstarts with the first byte of S_(2n). The number of the audio samples ina packet always becomes even.

Thus, in DVD-Audio format, the linear PCM data is processed in framesand GOF. The DVD-Audio may use the sampling frequency of 192 KHz,whereby the basic rule of linear PCM coding may be set as shown in Table18.

TABLE 18 Sampling frequency 48 KHz/44.1 KHz 96 KHz/88.2 KHz 192KHz/176.4 KHz (fs) Sampling Phase Shall be simultaneous for all channelsin all streams Quantization 16 bits or more, 2's complementary codeEmphasis Can be applied cannot be applied (zero point: 50 μs, pole: 15μs)

One audio frame contains 320 audio sample data when fs is 192 KHz. OneGOF corresponds to the presentation time of {fraction (1/30)} second asin the DVD-Video. The sampling frequency of 96 KHz is used to achievemultichannel to store quality audio data.

When recording the linear PCM audio data using the sampling frequency of48 KHz and quantization of 16 bits, 13 channels are available so as torecord the audio data of 10 channels required by the presentmultichannel music. However, when using the sampling frequency of 192KHz and quantization of 24 bits, only 2 channels are available to recordaudio data, which can not meet the requirement of the multichannelmusic. Namely, it is impossible to achieve multichannel audio functionwith high sampling frequency and a great number of data bits. However,such limitation may be resolved by lossless coding or pseudo-losslesscoding. The compression ratio of lossless coding is about 2:1 while thatof pseudo-lossless psychoacoustic coding is about 4:1.

It is assumed that the inventive DVD-Audio employs DTS (Digital TheaterSystem) coding which is pseudo-lossless psychoacoustic coding with thecompression ratio of about 4:1. Further, the DTS makes it possible toperform lossless coding. The DTS can provide a sufficient number ofchannels without significant degradation of sound quality. For the DTSmay carry out coding for a high specification with the samplingfrequency of 192 KHz and 24 bit quantization compared to differentcompression coding algorithms presently proposed, and has been developedto minimize degradation of sound quality instead of reducing the bitrate. The DTS has the sampling frequencies of 48 KHz, 44.1 KHz, 96 KHz,88.2 KHz, 192 KHz or 176.4 KHz, the quantization bit number of 16, 20and 24, and the number of channels from 1ch coding to the maximumallowed by the bit rate. The number of audio channels may be determinedby Eq. 2. $\begin{matrix}{N = \frac{{Mb}\quad \gamma*{Cc}\quad \gamma}{{Fs}*{Qb}}} & {{Eq}.\quad 2}\end{matrix}$

Fs: Sampling Frequency(Hz)->48 KHz, 44.1 KHz, 96 KHz, 88.2 KHz, 192 KHz,or 176.4 KHz

Qb: Number of Quantization Bits->16, 20, or 24

Mby: Maximum Data Transfer Rate of DVD(Mbps)->10.08 Mbps

Ccy: Compression ratio of Pseudo-Lossless Psychoacoustic Coding

N: Maximum Number of Audio Channels Determined by Data Transfer Rate,Sampling Frequency and Number of Quantization Bits of DVD

Assuming the DTS coding with the compression ratio of 4:1 is used forcompression coding, the number of channels determined by Eq. 2 is asshown in Table 19. Therefore, in accordance with Eq. 2, each samplingfrequency can support 8 or more channels.

TABLE 19 Number of Sampling Frequency Quantization Bits Maximum Numberof Channels 48 KHz/44.1 KHz    16 bits 52 48 KHz/44.1 KHz 20 42 48KHz/44.1 KHz 24 35 96 KHz/88.2 KHz 16 26 96 KHz/88.2 KHZ 20 21 96KHz/88.2 KHz 24 17 192 KHz/176.4 KHz 16 13 192 KHz/176.4 KHz 20 10 192KHz/176.4 KHz 24  8

Thus, the inventive DVD-Audio is constructed based on the structure ofthe MPEG2 system layer, and therefore, the compression coded audio packstructure comprises a pack header of 14 bytes and compression codedaudio packets each having at maximum 2021 bytes, as shown in FIG. 26.The pack header meets the specification of MPEG2 system layer.

The structure of the compression coded audio packet is also based on thespecification of MPEG2 system layer. The compression coded audio packetis constructed as shown in Tables 20 and 21. The Table 20 has the samestructure as Table 10 presenting the structure of linear PCM audiopacket of the DVD-Video.

TABLE 20 Field Bit Byte Value Comment packet_start_code_prefix 24 3 000001h stream_id 8 1 1011 1101b private_stream_1 PES_packet_length 16 2‘10’ 2 3 PES_scramling_control 2 3 00b not scrambled PES_priority 1 3 0no priority data_alignment_indicator 1 3 0 not defined by descriptorcopyright 1 3 0 not defined by descriptor original_or_copy 1 3 1 or 0original: 1 copy: 0 PTS_DTS_flags 2 3 10 or 00b ESCR_flag 1 3 0 no ESCRfield ES_rate_flag 1 3 0 no EST rate field DSTM_trick_mode_flag 1 3 0 notrick mode field additional_copy_info_flag 1 3 0 no copy info fieldPES_CRC_flag 1 3 0 no CRC field PES_extension_flag 1 3 0 or 1PES_header_data_length 8 3 0 to 15 ‘0010’ 4 5 provider Note 1 definedPTS [32 . . . 30] 3 5 provider Note 1 defined marker_bit 1 5 providerNote 1 defined PTS [29 . . . 15] 5 provider Note 1 defined marker_bit 15 provider Note 1 defined PTS [14 . . . 0] 15 5 provider Note 1 definedmarker_bit 1 5 0 Note 1 PES_private_data_flag 1 1 0 Note 2pack_header_field_flag 1 1 0 Note 2 program_packet_sequence_counter_flag1 1 0 Note 2 P_STD_buffer_flag 1 1 1 Note 2 reserved 3 1 111b Note 2PES_extension_flag_2 1 1 0 Note 2 ‘01’ 2 2 01b Note 2 P_STD_buffer_scale1 2 1 Note 2 P_STD_buffer_size 13 2 58 Note 2 stuffing_byte — 0-7

TABLE 21 Field Bit Byte Value Comment sub_stream_id 8 1 &&&& &***b Note1 number_of_frame_headers 8 1 Provider Note 2 Definedfirst_access_unit_pointer 16 2 Provider Note 3 Defined DTS Audio dataarea In Table 21, Notes 1 to 3 are described as follows: Note 1:“sub_stream_id” varies with the compression coding system, and sobecomes “1000 1***b” with the DTS. “***” represents decoding the audiodata stream number. Note 2: “number_of_frame_headers” describes thenumber of audio frames whose first byte is in this audio packet. Note 3:The access unit is the audio frame. The first_access_unit is the firstaudio frame which has the first byte of the audio frame.

Thus, the DVD-Audio is provided with more than 8 channels to perform thecompression coding, available sampling frequencies of 48 KHz, 44.1 KHz,96 KHz, 88.2 KHz, 192 KHz or 176.4 KHz, quantization bit number of 16,20 or 24, compression ratio from 1:1 to over 5:1, down mixing, dynamicrange control and time stamp.

The DTS compression algorithm used in the present embodiment has acompression ratio low enough to provide significantly improved soundquality, and may optionally be employed in DVD-Video. The DVD-Video hasthe structures of DTS pack and packet and restricted items for DTS. Forthe restricted items, the bit rate after compression is limited up to1.5 Mbps and the sampling frequency for compressible data is only 48KHz. However, in the inventive DVD-Audio employing the DTS algorithm,the sampling frequency is extended to 192 KHz, quantization bit numberto 24 bits, multichannel data compressed to about 4:1, thereby providingdesirable sound quality. Namely, the compression coding used in theinventive DVD-Audio employs sampling frequencies of 48 KHz/44.1 KHz/96KHz/88.2 KHz/192 KHz/176.4 KHz and quantization bit number of 16 bits/20bits/24 bits so as to compress multichannel linear PCM data by about 4:1without degrading sound quality.

The DVD-Audio may additionally include VIDEO_TS and VMG for theinformation region in a structure which is the same as in the DVD-Videoin order to have compatibility with a DVD-Video player. However, theDVD-Video restricts the data transfer rate of an audio stream within6.144 Mbps, as shown in Table 11.

TABLE 22 Transfer Rate Total Streams One Stream Note VOB 10.08 Mbps    —Video Streams 9.80 Mbps 9.80 Mbps Number of Streams=1 Audio Streams 9.80Mbps 6.144 Mbps Number of Streams=8(max) Sub-picture Streams 9.80 Mbps3.36 Mbps Number ot Streams=32(max)

Hence, the DVD-Video player may reproduce only the data satisfying theDVD-Video specification among the audio data of the DVD-Audio. Thelinear PCM data reproduced by the DVD-Video player is as shown in Table7. Of course, compression coded DTS data is played by the DVD-Videoplayer to reproduce only DTS streams specified by the DVD-Video. Forexample, it is assumed that the titles to be stored into a DVD are asshown in Table 23.

TABLE 23 Sampling Number of Number of Frequency Quantization BitsChannels Remark 48 KHz 16 8ch Title 1 96 KHz 16 4ch Title 2 96 KHz 242ch Title 3 96 KHz 24 4ch Title 4 192 KHz  24 2ch Title 5

Then, the VIDEO_TS and VMG are recorded with the attribute and positioninformation of Titles 1 to 3 but not with the information of Titles 4and 5. On the contrary, the AUDIO_TS and AMG of the DVD-Audio arerecorded with the information of all the Titles 1 to 5 because theTitles 1 to 3 meet the specifications of both DVD-Video and DVD-Audiobut the Titles 4 and 5 only meet the specification of the DVD-Audio.Hence, the Titles 4 and 5 may be played only by the DVD-Audio player. Ifthere is an available space in the data zone, the Titles 4 and 5 may beseparately recorded in the available data space with the samplingfrequency, quantization bit number and channel number reduced, and theinformation on the Titles 4 and 5 are stored into the VIDEO_TS and VMG.Then, the Titles 4 and 5 may be reproduced by a DVD-Video player.

If the compression coding DTS does not meet the specification of theDVD-Video concerning data transfer rate, number of channels, samplingfrequency of original data, quantization bit number, etc., theinformation is recorded only in the AUDIO_TS and AMG but not in theVIDEO_TS and VMG. Namely, only the DTS streams satisfying thespecification of the DVD-Video may be recorded in the VIDEO_TS and VMG.In order to reproduce the DTS streams not conforming to thespecification of the DVD-Video, they must be coded to meet the transferrate, number of channels, sampling frequency and quantization bit numberspecified for the DVD-Video, stored to be recorded in the VIDEO_TS andVMG.

The AMG and ATSI_MAT of the DVD-Audio has the same structure as the VMGand VTSI of the DVD-Video. However, the audio data exceeding thespecification of the DVD-Video such as sampling frequency of 192 KHz and8 or more channels must be changed to be reproduced by the DVD-Videoplayer. Hence, the disk is made as follows:

When the content of a title to be recorded on the disk is within thespecification of the DVD-Video, any one of the VMG and the AMG is keptto make the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS direct the file through the VMG orAMG. Then, the DVD-Audio player regards the file as AMG to play whilethe DVD-Video player regards the file as VMG to play.

Meanwhile, if any of the titles to be recorded in the disk has an audiostream which does not meet the specification of the DVD-Video, both theVMG and the AMG are kept together, and the VMG is not recorded with theinformation on the titles which do not conform to the specifications ofthe DVD-Video. Of course, the AMG has not recorded with the informationon the titles which have the sampling frequency, number of quantizationbits and number of channels altered to be compatible with the DVD-Videoplayer.

However, when the AMG and ATSI_MAT of the DVD-Audio are structuredentirely different from the VMG and VTSI_MAT of the DVD-Video, both VMGand AMG must be prepared, and thus both VTSI_MAT and ATSI_MAT. Ofcourse, the VMG and VTSI_MAT are provided with the information on theaudio titles conforming to the specification of the DVD-Video.

The apparatus for playing the DVD-Audio may be designed independentlyfrom the DVD-Video player, but the inventive DVD-Audio player may becombined with the DVD-Video player.

Referring to FIG. 27 for illustrating the structure of a DVD-Audioplayer, a system controller 111 controls the whole operation of theDVD-Audio player, serving the user interface. The system controller 111determines whether the inserted disk is a DVD-Video or DVD-Audio bychecking effective data included in the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS directory.When it is checked that effective data exists from the AUDIO_TSdirectory, the system controller 111 determines the inserted disk to bea DVD-Audio and thus, controls its playing operation. But if it isdetermined that no effective data exists from the AUDIO_TS, the systemcontroller 111 determines the inserted disk to be a DVD-Video, and thus,stops the playing operation.

A pickup device 112 is provided to read the data stored in theDVD-Audio. A servo controller 113 controls the pickup device 112 toperform various servo functions under the control of the systemcontroller 111. A data receiver 114 analyzes and corrects an erroroccurring in the data output from the pickup device 112, and includes anerror correction circuit. An audio decoder 115 transfers the audioinformation from the data receiver 114 to the system controller 111,decoding received audio data under the control of the system controller111.

The audio decoder 115 is designed to decode the linear PCM audio dataand compression coded audio data according to the present invention, asshown in FIG. 28. Referring to FIG. 28, an input data buffer 211 storesthe audio data output from the data receiver 114. A stream selector 212selectively outputs the audio data stream from the input buffer 211under the control of the system controller 111. A linear PCM decoder 213decodes linear PCM audio data received from the stream selector 212 tothe original audio data. A coding data decoder (Pseudo-LosslessPsychoacoustic Decoding Circuit) 214 decodes compression coded data fromthe stream selector 212 to the original audio data. An output buffer 215stores the audio data delivered by the decoding parts 213 and 214. Adigital audio formatter 216 converts the audio data from the decodingparts 213 and 214 into a format specified by the system controller 111.The timing controller 210 generates timing control signals to controlthe operations of the parts of the audio decoder 115 under the controlof the system controller 111.

A digital processor (High-bit High-sampling Digital Filter) 116 filtersaudio data from the audio decoder 115 under the control of the systemcontroller 111. An audio output circuit (High Performance Digital toAnalog Converters and Analog Audio Circuitry) 117 converts the audiodata from the digital processor 116 into an analog signal.

Referring to FIGS. 27 and 28, the data receiver 114 transfers the audiodata reproduced from a DVD-Audio through the pickup device 112 to theaudio decoder 115. The reproduced audio data are sequentially storedinto the input buffer 211 of the audio decoder 115. The audio datastored in the input buffer 211 are selected by the stream selector 212and transferred to the decoding parts 213 and 214. Namely, when thesystem controller 111 demands decoding of the linear PCM audio data, thestream selector 212 transfers the audio data stored in the input buffer211 to the linear PCM decoder. In addition, when the system controller111 demands decoding of the compression coded data, the stream selector212 transfers the audio data stored in the input buffer to the codingdata decoder 214.

Describing the decoding operation of the linear PCM audio data, thelinear PCM decoder 213 generally performs multichannel downmixing,sampling frequency conversion and requantization of the input signal.For example, when 8-channel data produced from the stream selector 212is required to be converted into 2-channel data, the linear PCM decoder213 performs multichannel downmixing to produce an output of therequired channel number. Further, when the input data sampled at 192 KHzis required by the system controller 111 to be converted into datasampled at 96 KHz, the linear PCM decoder 213 performs the samplingfrequency conversion to produce audio data of the required samplingfrequency. In addition, when the input audio data of 24 bit quantizationis required by the system controller 111 to be converted into data of 16bit quantization, the linear PCM decoder 213 performs the requantizationprocess to produce audio data of the required number of bits.

Describing the decoding operation of the compression coded audio data,the coding data decoder 214 decodes the compression coded audio data bycarrying out the corresponding algorithm under the control of the systemcontroller 111. In this case, the form of the audio data produced fromthe coding data decoder 214 is specified by the system controller 111.In the present embodiment, the coding data decoder 214 may be a DTSdecoder. In addition, the coding data decoder 214 also carries out themultichannel downmixing, sampling frequency conversion andrequantization of the input signal together with the algorithm decoding.

The audio data decoded by the decoding parts 213 and 214 is transferredto the output buffer 215 and digital audio formatter 216. The outputbuffer 215 stores the decoding audio data to synchronize with a controlsignal supplied by the timing controller 210. The digital audioformatter 216 adjusts the decoded audio data to the transmission formatbetween the digital devices, synchronizing it with a control signal fromthe timing controller 210. In this case, the output audio data may bedelivered to an audio/video system or a computer having the sametransmission format.

The decoded audio data from the audio decoder 115 is processed throughthe digital processor 116 and converted by the audio output circuit 117into an analog signal. The digital processor 116 comprises a pluralityof digital filters to eliminate noises outside the audio signal band.The digital processor 116 requires a filter coefficient having a muchhigher resolution and number of taps than the digital filters used inthe conventional DVD or CD to process the audio data sampled at 192 KHzand quantized by 24 bits. Of course, when a D/A converter of 96 KHz and192 KHz becomes commonly available, the digital processor 116 may beincluded in the D/A converter. The audio output circuit 117 includes aplurality of D/A converters to convert the audio data deprived of noisesinto an analog audio signal.

Referring to FIG. 29 for illustrating an apparatus for playing bothDVD-Video and DVD-Audio, the system controller 311 controls the wholeoperation of the DVD-Audio/Video player, serving the user interface. Thesystem controller 311 determines whether the inserted disk is aDVD-Video or DVD-Audio by checking effective data included in theVIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS directory. When there is effective data from theAUDIO_TS directory, the system controller 311 determines the inserteddisk to be a DVD-Audio and thus, controls its playing operation. But ifthere is no effective data from the AUDIO_TS, the system controller 311determines the inserted disk to be a DVD-Video, stops the presentDVD-Audio playback mode, and changes to the playback mode of theDVD-Video.

A pickup device 312 is provided to read the data stored in theDVD-Audio. A servo controller 313 controls the pickup device 312 toperform various servo functions under the control of the systemcontroller 311. A data receiver 314 analyzes and corrects an erroroccurring in the data output from the pickup device 312, and includes anerror correction circuit. An audio/video decoder 315 transfers the audioinformation from the data receiver 314 to the system controller 311,decoding received audio data under the control of the system controller311.

The audio/video decoder 315 is designed to decode video data and audiodata, as shown in FIG. 30. Referring to FIG. 30, an input data buffer411 stores the audio and video data output from the data receiver 314. Astream parser 412 selectively outputs the audio and video data streamfrom the input buffer 411 under the control of the system controller311. An audio decoding circuit 413 decodes the audio data selected bythe stream parser 412 in response to a control data from the systemcontroller 311. A decoding audio output circuit 414 outputs the decodedaudio data from the audio decoding circuit 413. A video decoding circuit415 decodes the video data selected by the stream parser 412 in responseto a control signal of the system controller 311. A decoding videooutput circuit 416 outputs the decoded video data from the videodecoding circuit 415. A timing controller 410 generates timing controlsignals to control the operations of the parts of the audio/videodecoder 315 under the control of the system controller 311.

The audio decoding circuit 413 must be provided with decoding elementscorresponding to a linear PCM system, an MPEG system, an AC-3 system anda compression coding system. The linear PCM system and compressioncoding system require additional elements to reproduce the audio datarecorded in the inventive DVD-Audio. Namely, the decoding elements areprovided to reproduce the audio data formed by sampling frequency,quantization bits and audio channels according to the present invention.Also provided is a stream selector to distribute the audio datacorresponding to the decoding elements.

A digital processor (High-bit High-sampling Digital Filter) 316 filtersaudio data from the audio/video decoder 315 under the control of thesystem controller 311. An audio output circuit (High Performance Digitalto Analog Converters and Analog Audio Circuitry) 117 converts the audiodata from the digital processor 316 into an analog signal. A videooutput circuit (NTSC Encoder Video Digital to Analog Converter's AnalogVideo Circuitry) 318 encodes video data from the audio/video decoder 315in NTSC, converting the video data into an analog video signal.

Referring to FIGS. 29 and 30, the data reproduced from the disk throughthe pickup device 312 is transferred to the data receiver 314 to analyzeit and correct an error in it, and is applied to the audio/video decoder315. The data produced from the data receiver 314 is applied to theinput buffer 411 of the audio/video decoder 315. The stream parser 412selects a required stream according to a control data of the systemcontroller 311, and analyzes the stream to deliver the video data to thevideo decoding circuit 415 and the audio data to the audio decodingcircuit 413.

The audio decoding circuit 413 transforms the audio data from the streamparser 412 according to the requirements of the system controller 311.The audio decoding circuit 413 must include the decoding functions todecode audio data of both DVD-Video and DVD-Audio. The video decodingcircuit 415 decodes and transforms the input video data. The video datatransformation means sub_title process, pan_scan, etc.

The decoded audio and video data are respectively transferred to thedecoding audio and video output circuits 414 and 416, and are finallytransmitted outside in synchronism with timing control signals of thetiming controller 410. The decoding audio output circuit 414 adjusts thedecoded audio data to the transmission format between the digitaldevices. The audio data generated from the decoding audio output circuit414 is transferred to a different audio/video system or computer.

As shown in FIG. 29, the audio/video decoder 315 follows thespecification of the DVD-Video when processing video signals, andcarries out both the inventive algorithm and the audio decodingalgorithm according to the specification of the DVD-Video. Thus, theaudio decoding circuit 413 contains the linear PCM and DTS algorithms ofthe audio specification of the DVD-Video, and therefore both DVD-Videoand DVD-Audio may be reproduced.

In this case, the algorithm required for the audio decoding of theDVD-Video indicates linear PCM decoding(1)+AC-3 decoding+MPEG decodingwhile the algorithm required for the audio decoding of the DVD-Audioindicates linear PCM decoding(2)+coding data decoding (Pseudo-LosslessPsychoacoustic Decoding). Hence, the linear PCM algorithm in theDVD-Video is included in the linear PCM algorithm according to thepresent invention. The decoding algorithm employed in the DVD-Video andDVD-Audio includes the functions as expressed by Eq. 3, carried out bythe audio decoding circuit

Audio Decoder=Linear PCM Decoder(2)+Pseudo-Lossless PsychoacousticDecoder+AC-3 Decoder+MPEG Decoder  Eq. 3

Thus, such an apparatus for playing both DVD-Video and DVD-Audio detectsthe VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS of the inserted DVD to set the audio decodingmode. The audio data of the DVD-Audio with the video data eliminated isshown in Table 24.

TABLE 24 Sampling Number of Bit Rate per Number of Required DataFrequency Quantization Bits Channel Channels Capacity 48 KHz 16 bits 768Kbps 8ch 5.99 Gbyte 20 bits 960 Kbps 8ch 5.76 Gbyte 24 bits 1.152 Mbps8ch 5.53 Gbyte 96 KHz 16 bits 1.536 Mbps 6ch 5.53 Gbyte 20 bits 1.920Mbps 5ch 5.76 Gbyte 24 bits 2.304 Mbps 4ch 5.53 Gbyte

The compression coding system specified in the DVD-Video may compressdata at a maximum of 448 Kbps. The sampling frequency to allowcompression is 48 KHz, and the number of quantization bits to allowcompression is 16 bits. Hence, the amount of data to be handled islimited, and the compression ratio is about 10:1. Therefore, it isunsuitable for audio data, especially in view of sound quality. If thecompression algorithm is a dolby AC-3 algorithm, the quantization systemis 16 bit linear PCM, the sampling frequency is 48 KHz, the maximumnumber of channels to record at is a maximum of 6ch (one of the audiochannels having a subwoofer channel containing audio data below 200 Hzand using 0.1 of that channel), and possible bit rate is 192 Kbps-448Kbps. The dolby AC-3 algorithm is very limited in the number ofquantization bits, the sampling frequency, and the high compressionratio, resulting in serious degradation of sound quality and is thusunsuitable for audio use exclusively. In addition, when the compressionalgorithm is MPEG2 algorithm, the quantization system is 16 bits-24 bitslinear PCM, the sampling frequency is 48 KHz, the maximum number ofchannels to record is 8ch (one of the audio channels having a subwooferchannel containing audio data below 200 Hz and using 0.1 of thatchannel), and the possible bit rate is 64 Kbps-912 Kbps. This algorithmhas a high quantization bit number for possible coding and a highchannel number to record, but the sampling frequency is limited and thecompression ratio high, thereby causing degradation of sound quality.

However, assuming that the transfer rate is 10.08 Mbps and the time forreproducing is 80 minutes for the DVD-Audio, the linear PCM audio isachieved as shown in Table 25. Furthermore, even in the case that thesampling frequency is 44.1 KHz, 88.2 KHz and 176.4 KHz, the PCM audiomay have similar values as those shown in Table 25.

TABLE 25 Sampling Number of Bit Rate per Number of Required DataFrequency Quantization Bits Channel Channels Capacity 48 KHz 16 bits 768Kbps 13ch  5.99 Gbyte 48 KHz 20 bits 960 Kbps 10ch  5.76 Gbyte 24 bits1.152 Mbps 8ch 5.53 Gbyte 96 KHz 16 bits 1.536 Mbps 6ch 5.53 Gbyte 20bits 1.920 Mbps 5ch 5.76 Gbyte 24 bits 2.304 Mbps 4ch 5.53 Gbyte 192KHz  16 bits 3.072 Mbps 3ch 5.53 Gbyte 20 bits 3.840 Mbps 2ch 4.61 Gbyte24 bits 4.608 Mbps 2ch 5.53 Gbyte

Employing DTS in the compression coding system, the quantization uses 16bit, 20 bit or 24 bit linear PCM, a sampling frequency of 48 KHz, 44.1KHz, 96 KHz, 88.2 KHz, 192 KHz or 176.4 KHz, the maximum number ofchannels to record is 13ch, and the compression ratio is about 4:1. TheDTS compression coding has a high quantization bit number and samplingfrequency with a reduced compression ratio, keeping high sound quality.

As described above with reference to FIGS. 27 and 29, the audio oraudio/video player determines the kind of DVD by checking if effectivedata is stored in the AUDIO_TS directory. Namely, the DVD-Audio playerperforms the reproducing function or not according to whether iseffective data stored in the AUDIO_TS directory. The audio/video playeras shown in FIG. 29 performs the audio or video playing functionaccording to whether effective data stored in the AUDIO_TS directory.

FIG. 31 describes the operation of the inventive concept with referenceto the audio/video player as shown in FIG. 29. An inserted DVD ischecked by the system controller 311 in steps 511, and the content ofthe AUDIO_TS directory is read in step 513. In step 515, it is checkedwhether there is effective data stored in the AUDIO_TS directory. If theinserted DVD is a DVD-Video, there is no effective data in the AUDIO_TSdirectory. Namely, the DVD-Video has the AUDIO_TS directory, but it isempty. However, if the inserted DVD is a DVD-Audio, the AUDIO_TSdirectory contains the information on the positions of the audio data asshown in FIGS. 10 to 18C.

Detecting effective data in the AUDIO_TS directory in step 515, thesystem controller 311 determines the inserted disk as being a DVD-Audioin step 517. In step 519, the position of the AMG as shown in FIGS. 10and 11 is located by reading the AUDIO_TS directory. Then, the pickupdevice 312 is moved to the position of the AMG in the DVD in step 521,where the AMG is read to confirm the information on the places storingthe entire audio data. As shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, the AMG contains theinformation on all audio titles stored in the DVD-Audio as well as theattribute and position information of each title.

In step 523, the system controller 311 checks whether there is a demandfor reproducing a specific audio title. The demand is made by the useror a command stored in the DVD-Audio. Detecting the demand to reproducea title, the system controller 311 locates the position of the title inthe disk according to the position information obtained from the AMG instep 525, and in step 527, moves the pickup device 312 to the positionof the ATSI_MAT of the title to read it. In step 529, the information ofthe ATSI_MAT as shown in FIGS. 15 to 18C is analyzed to determine thereproducing algorithm by discovering the kind and attribute of the audiotitle to play. In step 531, the audio decoding circuit 413 of theaudio/video decoder 315 is set to the selected audio data from theDVD-Audio according to the reproducing algorithm. The informationrequired to set the audio decoding circuit 413 are the audio codingmode, the sampling frequency, the quantization bit number and thechannel number. Finally, the selected title is decoded by the audiodecoding circuit 413 played in step 533.

On the other hand, if there is no effective data in the AUDIO_TSdirectory in step 515, the system controller 311 determines the inserteddisk as being a DVD-Video, and in step 537, the position of the VMG islocated by reading the VIDEO_TS directory. Then, the pickup device 312is moved to the position of the VMG in the DVD in step 539, where theVMG is read to confirm the information on the places storing the entirevideo data. Thereafter, if there is a demand to reproduce a title, thevideo, sub-picture and audio data of the selected title are playedaccording to the information stored in the VTSI_MAT.

Likewise, a DVD-Audio player, which only reproduces data from aDVD-Audio, also performs the steps 511 to 533 for the DVD-Audio, butstops the playing operation for a DVD-Video.

After setting the audio decoding circuit 413 according to theinformation stored in the ATSI_MAT, the system controller 311 analyzesthe audio pack stored in the data area of a DVD-Audio from step 533going through the steps as shown in FIG. 32.

In step 611, the system controller 311 commands a decoding operation ofthe audio decoding circuit 413, and in step 613, controls the streamparser 412 to transfer the received audio data to the audio decodingcircuit 413 provided with the corresponding audio algorithm. Then, theaudio decoding circuit 413 decodes the received audio data according tothe algorithm set by the system controller 311. Here, the systemcontroller 311 checks the operational state of the audio decodingcircuit 413 in step 615. Detecting an abnormal state of the audiodecoding circuit, the process proceeds to step 621 to control thedecoding circuit 413 to stop the decoding operation, and the streamparser 412 is controlled to stop transferring data. Then, afterperforming the repair algorithm according to the abnormal state, theprocess is returned to step 611.

However, if the audio decoding circuit 413 performs the decodingoperation normally in step 615, the decoded audio data is output throughthe decoding audio output circuit 414 in step 617. Thereafter, theoperational state of the audio decoding circuit 413 is checked again instep 619. Detecting the abnormal state, the process proceeds to the step621, or otherwise the process is returned to decode the next audio data.When the audio stream is fully decoded by the audio decoding circuit413, the system controller 311 controls the digital processor 316 andaudio output circuit 317 to convert the decoded audio data into ananalog signal.

Thus, the inventive DVD includes a VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS directory tomake it possible to distinguish a DVD-Audio from a DVD-Video by checkingeffective data stored in the AUDIO_TS directory. The DVD-Audio may berecorded with the audio data sampled at a maximum of 192 KHz andquantized by 24 bits. Further, audio channels may be extended greatly.Therefore, by reproducing the audio data in the DVD audio, it ispossible to reproduce an audio signal of high quality which is suitablefor multi-channel music. The number of channels limited by the datatransfer speed, the sampling frequency and the quantization bit numberis extended by using a coding algorithm.

In the case where the linear PCM data sampled at the sampling frequencyof 192 KHz is divided into the linear PCM data of 96 KHz and the data of192 KHz so that the data of 96 KHz is recorded by the losslesspsychoacoustic coding, the DVD of the present invention records theaudio titles at the sampling frequency of 192 KHz in the AUDIO_TSdirectory by linear PCM lossless coding, and records the video titles atthe sampling frequency of 96 KHz in the VIDEO_TS directory by linear PCMcoding. The DVD-audio player reads the AUDIO_TS to demodulate the databy the lossless psychoacoustic coding, and mixes it with the data of 96KHz to reproduce it into the data of 192 KHz. The DVD-video player readsthe VIDEO_TS directory to reproduce the data of 96 KHz. That is, byrecording one title into the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS separately, theDVD-audio player may reproduce the data at 192 KHz and the DVD-videoplayer may reproduce the data at 96 KHz.

Furthermore, in the case where the music data sampled at the 44.1 KHzfor an existing CD is provided to the DVD, the music data of 44.1 KHzshould be converted into the music data of 48 KHz in order to provide itby using the conventional DVD-video format. Undesirably, however, theaudio data may be degraded during the conversion. The DVD according tothe present invention can support the audio frequency sampled at 44.1KHz in DVD-audio format. Thus, it is possible to record the audio dataas it is without conversion of the sampling frequency and provide ittogether with the video data, thereby providing the audio sound of highquality.

Preferably, a general DVD-video player should be connected to theDVD-audio player which can reproduce the 24-bit data of 192 KHz, sincethe general DVD-video has a specification inferior to that of theDVD-audio.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus for reproducing data from aDVD-Audio disk having an audio manager (AMG) having information on anaudio title (ATS) and the ATS having audio title set information (ATSI)followed by contiguous audio objects (AOBs), the ATSI includes audiostream attributes, each audio stream attribute indicating an audiocoding mode, a first, second, or third quantization bit numbercorresponding to the data to be reproduced, a first, second, third,fourth, fifth, or sixth sampling frequency corresponding to the data tobe reproduced, and decoding algorithm information relating to a numberof audio channels of the data to be reproduced, and each of the AOBsincludes a plurality of audio packs recorded with audio datacorresponding to the decoding algorithm stored in the audio streamattribute, the apparatus comprising: a data receiver to receive theaudio data retrieved from the DVD-Audio disk; a controller to generatean audio control signal including the audio coding mode, the samplingfrequency of the six potential sampling frequencies, the number of audiochannels, and the detected one of the first through third quantizationbit numbers based upon information on the audio data; an audio decoderto decode the audio data, to multi-channel mix, to sampling-frequencyconvert, to requantize the decoded audio signal according to the audiocontrol signal, and to generate an output decoded audio data; and anaudio output circuit to convert the output decoded audio data into ananalog audio signal.
 2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein theaudio coding mode is linear pulse code modulated (PCM) audio, the firstthrough third quantization bit numbers are respectively 16 bits, 20 bitsand 24 bits, and the first through sixth sampling frequencies arerespectively 48 KHz, 96 KHz, 192 KHz, 44.1 KHz, 88.2 KHz, and 176.4 KHz.3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the audio coding mode isa compression coding system, the first through third quantization bitnumbers of the audio data before compression are respectively 16 bits,20 bits and 24 bits, and the first through sixth sampling frequenciesare respectively 48 KHz, 96 KHz, 192 KHz, 44.1 KHz, 88.2 KHz, and 176.4KHz.
 4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said audio decoderfurther comprises audio decoding circuits to decode the audio data, tomulti-channel mix, sampling-frequency convert, and to requantize thedecoded audio signal according to the audio control signal, wherein eachaudio decoding circuit corresponds to an audio coding mode.
 5. Theapparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein said audio decoder furthercomprises a stream selector to select one of the audio streams whichcomprise the audio data according to the audio coding mode controlsignal to deliver the selected audio stream to the corresponding one ofthe audio decoding circuits, and the audio decoding circuits comprise alinear pulse code modulated (PCM) decoding circuit to decode theselected audio stream when the selected audio stream is a linear PCMaudio stream, and to sampling frequency convert, to multichanneldownmix, and to requantize the decoded linear PCM audio stream accordingto the audio control signal, and a coding data decoding circuit todecode the selected audio stream when the selected audio stream is acompression coded audio stream by a corresponding extension algorithm,and to sampling frequency convert, to multichannel downmix, and torequantize the decoded compression coded audio stream according to theaudio control signal.
 6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, whereinsaid data receiver further corrects errors in the read data; said audiodecoder comprises: a linear PCM decoder, a Dolby AC-3 decoder, a codingdata decoder, and an MPEG decoder; and said controller drives thecorresponding one of the linear PCM decoder, Dolby AC-3 decoder, codingdata decoder, and MPEG decoder, to decode the audio data based upon theaudio coding mode of the corrected audio data.
 7. The apparatus asclaimed in claim 1, further comprising a digital processor to filter thedecoded audio data.
 8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein thefirst through sixth sampling frequencies comprise at least two samplingfrequencies above 100 Khz.
 9. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1,wherein two of the first through sixth sampling frequencies comprise 192KHz and 176.4 KHz.
 10. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein theATSI further comprises value fields, and the first through six samplingfrequencies are indicated by corresponding states of two of the valuefields, and said controller further determines which of the firstthrough six sampling frequencies is the sampling frequency from thestates of the two value fields.
 11. The apparatus as claimed in claim10, wherein one of the two value fields indicates whether the samplingfrequency is above 100 Khz.
 12. The apparatus as claimed in claim 10,wherein one of the two value fields indicates whether the samplingfrequency is one of 176.4 Khz and 192 Khz.
 13. The apparatus as claimedin claim 10, wherein, one of the two value fields indicates whether thesampling frequency is one of 176.4 Khz and 192 Khz, the other of the twovalue fields has a state that indicates the sampling frequency is 176.4Khz or 192 Khz, and said controller further detects the one value fieldto determine whether the sampling frequency is one of 176.4 Khz and 192Khz, and the state of the other value field to determine whether thesampling frequency is 176.4 Khz or 192 Khz.
 14. The apparatus as claimedin claim 10, wherein, a first of the two value fields has a first or asecond state, the first state indicates the sampling frequency is one of44.1 KHz, 88.2 KHz and 176.4 KHz, and the second state indicates thesampling frequency is one of 48 KHz, 96 KHz, and 192 KHz.
 15. Theapparatus as claimed in claim 14, wherein a second of the two valuefields has three states, and said controller further detects the firstor second state of the first value field to determine whether thesampling frequency is one of one of 44.1 KHz, 88.2 KHz and 176.4 KHz, orone of 48 KHz, 96 KHz, and 192 KHz, and one of the three states of thesecond value field to determine whether the sampling frequency is 176.4Khz or 192 Khz.
 16. An apparatus for reproducing data from a DVD-Audiodisk having an audio manager (AMG) having information on an audio title(ATS) and the ATS has audio title set information (ATSI) followed bycontiguous audio objects (AOBs) having audio data, the apparatuscomprising: a data receiver to receive the audio data retrieved from theDVD-Audio disk; a controller to generate an audio control signal, and todetect a sampling frequency differentiated from six sampling frequenciesusing the ATSI of the received audio data; and an audio decoder todecode the audio data, to sampling-frequency convert the decoded audiosignal according to the audio control signal, and to generate an outputdecoded audio data.
 17. The apparatus as claimed in claim 16, whereintwo of the six sampling frequencies potentially detected by saidcontroller comprise 192 KHz and 176.4 KHz.
 18. The apparatus as claimedin claim 16, wherein the ATSI further comprises value fields, and thefirst through six the sampling frequencies are indicated bycorresponding states of two of the value fields, and said controllerfurther determines which of the first through sixth sampling frequenciesis the sampling frequency from the corresponding states of the two valuefields.
 19. The apparatus as claimed in claim 18, wherein one of the twovalue fields indicates whether the sampling frequency is above 100 Khz.20. The apparatus as claimed in claim 18, wherein one of the two valuefields indicates whether the sampling frequency is one of 176.4 Khz and192 Khz.
 21. The apparatus as claimed in claim 20, wherein, another ofthe two value fields a state that indicates the sampling frequency is176.4 Khz or 192 Khz, and said controller further detects the one valuefield to determine whether the sampling frequency is one of 176.4 Khzand 192 Khz, and the state of the other value field to determine whetherthe sampling frequency is 176.4 Khz or 192 Khz.
 22. The apparatus asclaimed in claim 18, wherein, a first of the two value fields has afirst or a second state, the first state indicates the samplingfrequency is one of 44.1 KHz, 88.2 KHz and 176.4 KHz, and the secondstate indicates the sampling frequency is one of 48 KHz, 96 KHz, and 192KHz.
 23. The apparatus as claimed in claim 22, wherein a second of thevalue fields has three states, and said controller further detects thefirst or the second state of the first value field to determine whetherthe sampling frequency is one of one of 44.1 KHz, 88.2 KHz and 176.4KHz, or one of 48 KHz, 96 KHz, and 192 KHz, and one of the three statesof the second value field to determine whether the sampling frequency is176.4 Khz or 192 Khz.